Norse shielings in Scotland: an interdisciplinary study of setr/sætr and ærgi-names
This is a study of the Old Norse (hereafter abbreviated to ON) setr/sætr and ærgi place-names in areas of Scandinavian settlement in Scotland. The elements setr/sætr and ærgi all have a general meaning of a place for summer grazing in the hills, referred to in Scotland as a shieling. However, the re...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Other Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
Language: | English |
Published: |
The University of Edinburgh
2018
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/33203 |
id |
ftunivedinburgh:oai:era.ed.ac.uk:1842/33203 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivedinburgh:oai:era.ed.ac.uk:1842/33203 2023-07-30T04:03:26+02:00 Norse shielings in Scotland: an interdisciplinary study of setr/sætr and ærgi-names Foster, Mark Ryan Kruse, Arne Macniven, Alan Waugh, Doreen other 2018-11-26 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1842/33203 en eng The University of Edinburgh Foster, R. (2017). The use of the Scandinavian Place-Name Elements -sætr and - ærgi in Skye and the Outer Hebrides: a site and situation study. In Cooijmans, C. (ed), Traversing the Inner Seas: Contacts and Continuity around Western Scotland, the Hebrides and Northern Ireland. Edinburgh: Scottish Society for Northern Studies, 107-139. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/33203 place-names Scandinavian settlement Old Norse shieling loanwords ærgi Gaelic place-names interdisciplinary historical geography Thesis or Dissertation Doctoral PhD Doctor of Philosophy 2018 ftunivedinburgh 2023-07-09T20:31:32Z This is a study of the Old Norse (hereafter abbreviated to ON) setr/sætr and ærgi place-names in areas of Scandinavian settlement in Scotland. The elements setr/sætr and ærgi all have a general meaning of a place for summer grazing in the hills, referred to in Scotland as a shieling. However, the related terms setr and sætr, are employed as shielings names in Norway and are indistinguishable from each other in Britain. It is only in areas of Scandinavian settlement in Britain and the Faroes that ærgi is found to signify a shieling site. The element ærgi was adopted as a loanword from either, the Scottish Gaelic àirigh or Irish áirge, both of which can also have the meaning of a shieling. What is unusual about this adoption is it is rare for a more prestigious speech community (ON in this instance) to adopt a word from, what is believed to have been, a less prestigious language at the time (Gaelic). Various scholars have looked at this question, but none have adequately explained the reason for the adoption. Much of the previous research has relied on comparisons of local farming systems that were recorded many centuries after the Viking Age. Farming techniques from the fifteenth to twentieth century are unlikely to adequately represent the agricultural situation in the Viking Age due to different social imperatives. The overall question I want to answer in this thesis, is why Scandinavian settlers in Scotland adopted ærgi, when they already had corresponding ON terms for a shieling. The distribution of ON settlement names is one of the main pieces of evidence to prove Scandinavian settlement in Scotland during this period. This is especially true of secondary settlements, such as shielings, which rarely feature in early documentation. The language shift to either Gaelic or Scots-English is likely to have led to the loss of many ON place-names, but will also have fossilised some names in the landscape. The location of these settlement names can give an understanding of how Scandinavian settlers utilised the ... Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Faroes Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA - University of Edinburgh) Norway |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA - University of Edinburgh) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivedinburgh |
language |
English |
topic |
place-names Scandinavian settlement Old Norse shieling loanwords ærgi Gaelic place-names interdisciplinary historical geography |
spellingShingle |
place-names Scandinavian settlement Old Norse shieling loanwords ærgi Gaelic place-names interdisciplinary historical geography Foster, Mark Ryan Norse shielings in Scotland: an interdisciplinary study of setr/sætr and ærgi-names |
topic_facet |
place-names Scandinavian settlement Old Norse shieling loanwords ærgi Gaelic place-names interdisciplinary historical geography |
description |
This is a study of the Old Norse (hereafter abbreviated to ON) setr/sætr and ærgi place-names in areas of Scandinavian settlement in Scotland. The elements setr/sætr and ærgi all have a general meaning of a place for summer grazing in the hills, referred to in Scotland as a shieling. However, the related terms setr and sætr, are employed as shielings names in Norway and are indistinguishable from each other in Britain. It is only in areas of Scandinavian settlement in Britain and the Faroes that ærgi is found to signify a shieling site. The element ærgi was adopted as a loanword from either, the Scottish Gaelic àirigh or Irish áirge, both of which can also have the meaning of a shieling. What is unusual about this adoption is it is rare for a more prestigious speech community (ON in this instance) to adopt a word from, what is believed to have been, a less prestigious language at the time (Gaelic). Various scholars have looked at this question, but none have adequately explained the reason for the adoption. Much of the previous research has relied on comparisons of local farming systems that were recorded many centuries after the Viking Age. Farming techniques from the fifteenth to twentieth century are unlikely to adequately represent the agricultural situation in the Viking Age due to different social imperatives. The overall question I want to answer in this thesis, is why Scandinavian settlers in Scotland adopted ærgi, when they already had corresponding ON terms for a shieling. The distribution of ON settlement names is one of the main pieces of evidence to prove Scandinavian settlement in Scotland during this period. This is especially true of secondary settlements, such as shielings, which rarely feature in early documentation. The language shift to either Gaelic or Scots-English is likely to have led to the loss of many ON place-names, but will also have fossilised some names in the landscape. The location of these settlement names can give an understanding of how Scandinavian settlers utilised the ... |
author2 |
Kruse, Arne Macniven, Alan Waugh, Doreen other |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Foster, Mark Ryan |
author_facet |
Foster, Mark Ryan |
author_sort |
Foster, Mark Ryan |
title |
Norse shielings in Scotland: an interdisciplinary study of setr/sætr and ærgi-names |
title_short |
Norse shielings in Scotland: an interdisciplinary study of setr/sætr and ærgi-names |
title_full |
Norse shielings in Scotland: an interdisciplinary study of setr/sætr and ærgi-names |
title_fullStr |
Norse shielings in Scotland: an interdisciplinary study of setr/sætr and ærgi-names |
title_full_unstemmed |
Norse shielings in Scotland: an interdisciplinary study of setr/sætr and ærgi-names |
title_sort |
norse shielings in scotland: an interdisciplinary study of setr/sætr and ærgi-names |
publisher |
The University of Edinburgh |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/33203 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Faroes |
genre_facet |
Faroes |
op_relation |
Foster, R. (2017). The use of the Scandinavian Place-Name Elements -sætr and - ærgi in Skye and the Outer Hebrides: a site and situation study. In Cooijmans, C. (ed), Traversing the Inner Seas: Contacts and Continuity around Western Scotland, the Hebrides and Northern Ireland. Edinburgh: Scottish Society for Northern Studies, 107-139. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/33203 |
_version_ |
1772814425015713792 |